The 5 men had hung the girls' body to a tree after they had kidnapped, raped her. (Representational)
Five people were sentenced to double life imprisonment by a court in Salem on Thursday for alleged gang-rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in the district in 2014.
Mahila Court Sessions judge R Vijaya Kumari held the five guilty of the offences and also awarded varying terms of imprisonments on different counts, including kidnap and torture, besides the life term.
The judge said the sentences would run concurrently.
According to the prosecution, the five had kidnapped the girl when she was asleep in her house at Vazhapadi on February 14, 2014. The accused took the minor to a hill and gang raped her.
They had later hung her body on a tree and escaped. Based on a complaint from the girl's father, police investigated the case and arrested the five people under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and booked them for kidnap, gang-rape and murder.